Get Smashed
by Sam Delaney
Sceptre HK$128
Peter Mayle, Alan Parker, Ridley Scott, Maurice Saatchi. All had careers in advertising before shifting gears and all feature in Sam Delaney's Get Smashed: The story of the men who made the adverts that changed our lives (apart from Fay Weldon, who coined 'Go to work on an egg', female writers are scarcely mentioned). The title is taken from the introductory anecdote in which Gray Jolliffe is asked for a jingle to accompany a Cadbury's ad: 'For mash get Smash' took a second to conceive and earned him lasting fame. The title also alludes to the bad behaviour not just tolerated but expected of the creative types who would define Britain's burgeoning advertising industry from the 1960s to the late 1980s. Not a few admen from that period thrived on drink, women and drugs. Parties weren't much fun unless there was bloodshed and passing out at the office was par for the course. Attitude, of course, was paramount, especially after many of New York's brightest moved to London in the 1960s, including Bob Gill and Robert Brownjohn, who apparently decamped because he was able to obtain heroin on prescription in Britain. Get Smashed should amuse advert junkies, gossip mongers and people in the industry, but otherwise its appeal is limited.
